South Africa’s top court on Tuesday heard arguments in a landmark case pitting environmentalists and coastal communities against energy giant Shell’s oil and gas exploration off the Indian Ocean coast.
The Constitutional Court hearing marks the last steps in a years-long legal battle against Shell’s plans to conduct seismic surveys off the country’s south-east coast, which activists argue would affect whales and other marine life.
Renew its permit
A lower court in 2022 ruled the exploration authorisation granted by South Africa’s government in 2014 was unlawful, in a ruling hailed as a major victory for civil society.
But an appeals court last year gave the British oil heavyweight another chance to renew its permit.
“This was the first time that a legal case about fishing communities went all the way to the Constitutional court,” Carmen Mannarino, the programme manager at fisher-rights organisation Masifundise told AFP.
“This is about the dignity of communities,” she said.
“The fundamental question is: are rights of communities more, or less, important than the rights of companies?”
Pristine beaches
Shell planned to map more than 6 000 square kilometres off South Africa’s so-called ‘Wild Coast’, which boasts pristine beaches and rich waters housing exquisite marine life.
The seismic survey is conducted by bouncing sonic waves off the sea floor and using the reflection to build up a 3D image.
The energy giant says on its website that the impacts of such surveys are “well understood and mitigated against” and it is “adopting the most stringent mitigation measures”.
‘Ready to fight’ Shell
But fisherman Ntsindiso Nongcavu, an applicant in the case, told AFP he was “ready to fight any company that wants to do seismic surveys in our ocean.”
The 48-year-old from the coastal town of Port St Johns, who started fishing age 8, was among 200 people demonstrating outside the court in Johannesburg while the hearing was underway.
“We are fishermen, we depend on the ocean to get our livelihood,” Nongcavu said.
“If we allow a company like Shell to do seismic surveys on our coast, the species that we depend on will migrate or die.”
Maxwell Pekayo, 39, a fisherman from the village of Kei Mouth, said the case was a battle “for our future”.
“Even for our unborn children – they will survive by the ocean,” he said.
